Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[canisaries]

Where do I go to report glitches on the forums?

here, i believe

i take it this has something to do with your disappearing profile pic?

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

marks of lifestyle

This can include adornments, too. Chiefly collars for domestic pokémon and 'held items' for combat pokémon. Oh, and everyone important in PMD wears a neckerchief, apparently.

i'm back from spending 6 hours at a wedding of my cousin whom i barely know

My sympathies.

i'm planning a tricolor furret character for another upcoming fic. uA may have influenced this

Eyyyyyyy.

Unless you are describing every individual down to their slightest quirks, that is... rather difficult to do with quick descriptions of passerbies all of the time. In particular, since even among humans there is a limited variability and there are people, some related and some not, who look pretty damned identical.

One of the expectations upon a writer is the facility to describe the attributes and traits of their characters sufficiently for readers to distinguish them. @Nitro Indigo is asking for the bare minimum here: that fans portray pokémon of the same species as having even the slightest differentiation in features. Something as small and simple as having the one charmander be pudgy, with cinnabar scales, and their older sibling be taller, with scales that have a golden sheen.

Hell, you can go a little further without much effort at all and have the older charmander sibling be showing the beginnings of the crest horn they'll obtain fully when they evolve. Or perhaps they're missing a claw from an injury, or they have a kink in their tail, or they have a longer snout, or a white tailflame, or a roaring tailflame, or a tailflame that sputters periodically, or black eyes, or golden eyes, or a missing eye, or signs of injury or illness, or they're wearing a neckerchief, or a collar, or a wristband, or a tail ring, or a bandanna, or they favour walking on all fours, or they have a particular growl in their voice, or anything else you might think of.

There was a new guard posted at the guild entrance today; a mightyena with an especially thick coat. His age showed in his greying fur and torn ears.

"Stand and identify yourself," he barked, tail alert.

You needn't do more than this to achieve some variety by marking this guy as an old dog, possibly from a colder climate. That's already enough to distinguish him against any other mightyena, considering he's only a minor character.

As for humans looking identical — sure, some do. But in real world scenarios, humans who can reliably identify hundreds of contacts from eachother are ubiquitous, and in prose fiction, an author can simply not write important characters as having identical descriptions.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

i take it this has something to do with your disappearing profile pic?

Nope, I was trying to upload a new avatar, but it turned out to be too big.

On the Wings of Fire wikia, there are fan-made pictures of the dragons that are just coloured-in versions of the official artwork, and it irks me.

 

[BackSet]

Nope, I was trying to upload a new avatar, but it turned out to be too big.

On the Wings of Fire wikia, there are fan-made pictures of the dragons that are just coloured-in versions of the official artwork, and it irks me.

I don't go to the wings of fire wiki anymore.

Long story, don't ask.

 

[Ereshkigal]

One of the expectations upon a writer is the facility to describe the attributes and traits of their characters sufficiently for readers to distinguish them. @Nitro Indigo is asking for the bare minimum here: that fans portray pokémon of the same species as having even the slightest differentiation in features. Something as small and simple as having the one charmander be pudgy, with cinnabar scales, and their older sibling be taller, with scales that have a golden sheen.

Hell, you can go a little further without much effort at all and have the older charmander sibling be showing the beginnings of the crest horn they'll obtain fully when they evolve. Or perhaps they're missing a claw from an injury, or they have a kink in their tail, or they have a longer snout, or a white tailflame, or a roaring tailflame, or a tailflame that sputters periodically, or black eyes, or golden eyes, or a missing eye, or signs of injury or illness, or they're wearing a neckerchief, or a collar, or a wristband, or a tail ring, or a bandanna, or they favour walking on all fours, or they have a particular growl in their voice, or anything else you might think of.

That's only if it's an important character or one who is supposed to be distinguished (unlike a twin). If a minor character only encountered once or someone who looks extremely similarly to another character, you can generally get away with not distinguishing them simply because the expectation is different.

I have a bad habit of pulling a Tolkien and giving the backstory of every f***ing tree branch*. While this massively builds a world, it also bogs down a story to the point it's unreadable.

If someone is a minor maid who shows up for all of three sentences, people don't need to know the way she parts her hair, the bags under her eyes because she hasn't been sleeping well as of late, the bow she wears on her left arm to cover a dress rip that happened earlier that morning, or the fact the ruffles are a slightly-different shade of white than other lace on the dress. They don't even need to know it's a modern Japanese maid outfit with heavier English influences in its stylings. All they need to know is she's a maid.

I mean, yeah, you would remember that maid if she were a major character. But if she's minor character #1238795354275642^pi73, at this point you're screaming at me to stop describing people.

The same is as true of Pokemon as people.

*I wonder who will get this reference?

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

@Ereshkigal, We're talking about portraying pokémon as not being visually homogenous. Your post seems mostly concerned with how it can be detrimental to describe minor human characters in great detail. Maybe you consider even the unobtrusive example I wrote to be more than is necessary for minor pokémon characters. However, unless you're suggesting that any description at all is unnecessary, then does the point not still stand that it would be nice to see pokémon protagonists have some individuality against the vast hordes of identical depictions we normally see?

 

[Ereshkigal]

@unrepentantAuthor You have completely lost the thread of the conversation, correct?

Because I get the feeling you think I'm talking about protagonists in that difficulty when I made it clear several posts ago, and in my reply to you, I wasn't just considering them. Here's the conversation rundown so far, since I know how easy it is to have that happen:

In particular, my comment on this started with this post, where I mentioned agreeing and it being mostly a time issue for me.

Nitro replied in this post to point out my wording flaw, and to suggest it being every individual.

I pointed out in this post that such an idea is difficult to do with every individual; not suggesting it shouldn't be done, just that it can't realistically be done on that level. Specifically, how that level of detail becomes a problem when you have Pokemon that are just part of the crowd, as opposed to a main character.

This is your reply, where you suggest going ahead and describing them anyway.

This is my reply to you, where I point out that's a wee bit more difficult than you make it sound and really doesn't serve a story well and reiterate it's mostly not the protagonists I'm talking about.

Now, to answer your question:

However, unless you're suggesting that any description at all is unnecessary, then does the point not still stand that it would be nice to see pokémon protagonists have some individuality against the vast hordes of identical depictions we normally see?

Considering it's not the protagonists I'm talking about? Yes, any description at all can be unnecessary, and even detrimental, depending on their role in the story. It comes down to, "is this character important enough to serve any function, or are they ignorable background decor for this scene?"

 

[diamondpearl876]

Since the conversation's devolved into arguing about what the topic of the conversation even is, I'm gonna have to ask it to stop here and to remember that we should be working at discussions, not arguments. The posts here are dangerously skirting toward breaking the rules of bad sportsmanship, and at any rate, detail of this level warrants its own thread.

 

[BackSet]

Wait a minute, this isn't the gen 8 leaks thread. Wow, I got super mixed up.

 

[UselessBytes]

Speaking of gen 8 leaks, can we talk about Nutboi^TM and how much I love him

 

[diamondpearl876]

Its design looks a lot like Roggenrola to me, and I love Roggenrola, so... <3

 

[BackSet]

Tis very adorable.

Would love to have some way to work Nutty into a fanfic.

 

[Misfit Angel]

Did someone mention Sentredge Sentret?

 

[diamondpearl876]

Goth sentret gives me life tbh

 

[Iggy]

Did someone mention Sentredge Sentret?

Oh, a death metal Sentret.

 

[BackSet]

Did someone mention Sentredge Sentret?

"Everything is horrible and dark. I must niw become a dark type to adapt."
"Sentret! Get out here and battle! Stop brooding!"
"It's not a phase, Red!"

 

[Beth Pavell]

Well. Just withdrew a brick of money to pay for my car. I don't quite know how to feel about having a month's worth of wages physically in my hand

 

[Ereshkigal]

Well. Just withdrew a brick of money to pay for my car. I don't quite know how to feel about having a month's worth of wages physically in my hand

Exchange it for pennies, fill a swimming pool, and swim in it like you're a McDuck named Scrooge?

 

[Nitro Indigo]

What's Sentredge from?

 

[BackSet]

Exchange it for pennies, fill a swimming pool, and swim in it like you're a McDuck named Scrooge?

We need a scrooge mcduck pokemon.